10 Habits Keeping You Poor

Nobody wants or sets out to be poor. While there are many factors which can contribute to people finding themselves in a position of not having much money such as lack of education, medical expenses and job loss, the reality is that many times their poor financial state is due to nothing more than having bad financial habits. Being able to detect these bad habits, and then take the needed steps to correct them is important for anyone who wants to begin building wealth. Below are a number of habits that people far to many people have which keeps them poor. Do any of these sound familiar to you?

Inability to Save Money

There are a lot of people who claim to be poor or broke or without money

13 Responses to 10 Habits Keeping You Poor

I think these pretty much sum it up. We try to use any extra money we have to paying down our bills. I used to live in an area that was quantity over quality, but now unfortunately live in an area that thinks it is quality (which I beg to differ) and no quantity.

Great post and ideas: I believe great budgeting can be summed up in 1 sentence. Spend less than you earn. Same with weight loss: consume less than you burn. Same with relationships: Put into the relationship more than you take out. I like your tips on ways to spend less than you earn.

Let’s not forget that someone who lacks knowledge in even basic financial concepts is at a disadvantage. This isn’t to suggest that people who understand finances never get into financial trouble, but at least equipping the population with even basics (interest, types of accounts, amortization, compounding, mortgage types, escrow, etc) can give people the tools to make better financial decisions.

I find it interesting that public schools in my area make a second language mandatory starting in 7th grade, yet do not make finances mandatory. So we can end up with young adults who know French really well, yet rack up tens of thousands of dollars in debt by the time they are in the mid-20s.

Totally agree with JoeP. Teaching children early about how to take responsibility with money will benefit them greatly in the future. That is what should be the requirement, Foreign language should be an elective.

People justify in their minds their spending as being necessary so that there is nothing left over and it isn’t their fault. Those things can be upgrading cell phones constantly, smoking, overeating, eating out, etc.

My ex would justify whatever he spent money on, or at least tried to. He got us in $42K worth of credit card debt by saying we needed or he needed this or that. I knew we didn’t need it but he bought it anyhow. Knowing that I was going to end the marriage before we had absolutely nothing left, I started tucking dollar bills in a secret spot whenever one came my way. Over the course of many months I had saved up enough to pay for new glasses without charging them! It was a powerful moment for me and startling one for the ex (that I still get his creditors calling looking for him) as I’m not sure he had ever seen that kind of cash at one time nor has seen that much since!

But I think most people are kept poor by their own brains convincing them that they need what they do spend their money on and that they can’t get by without it instead of poking a $5 bill into a piggy bank. I know what it is like to be flat out broke, so I’m not saying this from the position of always having thousands in an emergency fund. But thinking through what is more important to you, to have savings or to spend what you have is what keeps many poor. When you get that mind set that you will save, you find that situations come up that allows you to.

It all comes down to having a very clear idea of Aims and Objectives. Sure hope the Mod. will allow me to tell you a story. Here goes……
There was once a jolly seahorse who had an Aim of being rich. So he told all his friends that I am off to seek my fortune. So off he went as some speed.
Later he met up with this large fish who sold him a special Wiget to go even faster!! Carry straight on advised this fish opening up his large mouth. The jolly seahorse raced in and was nver seen again!!!
Moral of the story.
If you don’t know where you are going you could end up somewhere else.

You are a good example to us all. Reading your post I would say that is
delayed gratification.
For folks not all together familar with this term may I point them to Stanford University Calif. Google it I know that I learned a lot.

I think these suggestion are right on track but this really doesn’t speak to the “POOR”. Middle income MAYBE. I myself barely survive. $20.00 pants…I can’t afford to buy clothes. Credit cards…who are you kidding? Save money…how when I have to choose between eating and medicine. Some people don’t have any idea what it is to be poor!

Hey, cry-Granny could be using the internet at the library. That’s free. She might be accessing the internet through free Wi-Fi and a gifted computer. Just because people are poor doesn’t mean they can’t get online. My husband and I rebuild computers and give them away-they aren’t the fastest things on Earth, but they will get online. Do try to use your brain before you look down your nose at someone who is struggling.